Odd rituals of a Royal Christmas

BRIAN HOEY reports on the strange and precisely scripted way in which the Royal Household celebrates the festive season,

PUBLISHED: 00:00, Sun, Dec 16, 2007

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The Royals began preparing for Christmas back in March

Nearly everyone complains that Christmas appears to begin earlier and earlier every year. Stores seem to start their festive sales campaigns just after the August bank holiday and there appears to be a national competition to see who can get their Christmas illuminations up first.

Spare a thought, then, for the Royal Family – or at least their staff – who began preparations for this year’s festivities as long ago as March.

That was when the Queen’s chief housekeeper at Buckingham Palace circulated a letter to every member of the royal household (around 550, including part-timers) asking them what they would like Her Majesty to give them for Christmas.

Yes, they get to choose their own present – with a couple of conditions. First, they have to have been in royal service for more than a year, otherwise they don’t qualify; next, they cannot have anything – as Prince Charles might put it – “above their station”. This means the most junior staff can have a gift worth £28, increasing year by year to a maximum of £35.

Family members are told what order they need to arrive in at Sandringham a week before Christmas

There is one long-serving footman who has been there for 28 years and is collecting a dinner service.

So far, he has only been able to get a cup and saucer or one plate every year and he told me he reckons he will have to complete 40 years to collect the entire set.

Then, in the week before Christmas, to complete the charade, they all troop into one of the State Apartments to receive their presents from the Queen. This is carried out in strict order of precedence with the Members (private secretaries, Keeper of the Privy Purse, Crown Equerry and Master of the Household) going first.

They are followed by the Senior Officials (accountants and administrators) and the ordinary Officials (office clerks and press officers), with the Staff bringing up the rear. These are the domestic workers, cooks, footmen, cleaners, chauffeurs and outside staff who work in the garden and are normally never allowed inside. Their names are called out by the Lord Chamberlain and they come forward to meet the Queen, who hands over their beautifully wrapped present.

They thank her, saying it’s exactly what they wanted (without even opening it). Of course, it is – after all, they chose it themselves nine months ago.

Then, everyone who works at the palace is invited to a drinks party in the ballroom – this year it is being held tomorrow – as they no longer have a formal staff Christmas ball.

The Queen and Prince Philip send 850 Christmas cards to heads of state, leading politicians, Commonwealth leaders, friends and family. But Her Majesty and His Royal Highness don’t sit down and sign them together.

The Queen used to sign hers on board the Royal Yacht during the summer cruise but now Britannia has gone, she adds her signature while she is at Balmoral, and then they are passed to Philip to sign. He also sends a further 200 of his own, to the military, naval and civilian organisations with which he is associated.

Recipients can tell their standing with the Queen by the way in which their cards are inscribed. Cousins like the Gloucesters and Kents have theirs signed Lillibet – the Queen’s childhood nickname – while political figures such as the Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and the Speaker of the House of Commons, get a formal Elizabeth R and Philip.

Close friends such as Countess Mountbatten will receive a card bearing the legend Elizabeth and Philip (handwritten) without the R (Regina) and those who just make it on to the list, including former senior members of the royal household, find theirs isn’t always personally signed. The signature is simply stamped on.

The Queen also gives around 1,450 puddings to her all her staff, pensioners, the men and women who work in the Court Post Office, the 50-odd men from the Department Of The Environment who look after the fabric of the building and the palace police force.

By tradition, the Queen gives one hundredweight of coal to “deserving and needy” people in Windsor.

In the early days of her reign these numbered around 900 but today the figure is less than 100 as central heating has, in the main, done away with the need for coal fires.

At one time, the Queen liked to do her Christmas shopping personally, so Harrods, then royalty’s favourite store, was delighted to open after hours exclusively for her. But security measures have become so strict that, these days, Her Majesty does all her shopping through catalogues and via the internet.

A week or so before Christmas, those family members who have been invited to spend the holiday with the Queen and Prince Philip are told by the Crown Equerry in what order they are to arrive at Sandringham and at exactly what time.

Royal protocol being what it is, it’s all worked out according to precedence and seniority, with the most junior

and least important arriving first and Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and Prince Harry always the last to turn up. They then form a “welcoming” committee for the Queen and Prince Philip.

Her Majesty likes to put the finishing touches to the Christmas tree herself, helped by some of the younger members of the family.

The tree comes from her estate and she also gives trees to several churches – Westminster Abbey gets two; St Paul’s Cathedral three; the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks, two; St Giles Cathedral and Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh one each; and Crathie Church at Balmoral, one. Churches and schools near Sandringham also receive trees.

Royal Christmas presents are traditionally exchanged at teatime on Christmas Eve. Trestle tables are laid out in the red drawing room at Sandringham, with sections marked off with tape showing where each family member’s gifts should be.

During the afternoon, they all creep down to the drawing room and secretly place their gifts on the table. The rule is that no one may open their parcel until given permission by Philip, who supervises the proceedings, and also every present should be an inexpensive “joke gift” – the cheaper the better.

After all, what else can you give the family that has everything?

When Princess Diana first joined the family, no one told her this and she went to enormous expense and trouble buying cashmere sweaters and mohair scarves. The inflexible rule is that everyone must open their gifts in front of the entire party and when they first saw Diana’s offerings, everyone – except her – thought it was hilarious.

Charles’s favourite present was a white leather toilet seat which was meant as a joke but which he found so comfortable that it now accompanies him on all his overseas tours.

The only family member who does not appreciate “joke” presents is the Queen, so all hers are strictly useful.

Philip was once asked by a cousin what he thought Her Majesty would like for Christmas and he replied: “One of those see-through umbrellas.” It only cost £11 but it turned out to be an inspired suggestion and the Queen now has a collection in a variety of colour trims.

All the family attend church at Sandringham on Christmas morning but the Queen receives Holy Communion privately from her own chaplain before the service. And when the collection plate is passed around, Her Majesty’s equerry, who sits in the pew immediately behind her, hands her a new £10 note. It used to be a fiver but inflation has caught up with them, as with the rest of us.

As in most households, lunch is the main meal of the day but there are five lunches served at Sandringham on Christmas Day. First, the junior staff have theirs at 11am, then the senior footmen an hour later, followed by the Royal Family at 1.15pm. The junior kitchen staff have theirs at 2.15pm before everything comes to a halt so that they can watch the Queen’s Christmas broadcast at 3pm. The royal chef is the last to have his lunch, at 4pm.

After dinner on Christmas evening, which is very formal, with the men in black tie and the ladies in long evening gowns and diamond tiaras, the family plays charades until midnight – and nobody is permitted to go to bed until the Queen retires.

Boxing Day is devoted to a large shooting party organised by the Duke of Edinburgh, after which everyone but the immediate family leaves Sandringham.

The Queen stays on until the first week in February (to coincide with her Accession date) and – as she is not in the least bit superstitious – insists on the Christmas decorations remaining up until she leaves. Taking them down, as most people do, on 12th Night, does not apply when you are royal. Or, as one senior courtier put it: “Royalty may not always be right but they are never wrong.”

This, then, is the routine that has been followed every year since Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952 and it will continue for as long as she reigns.

The royals love it that way, so why change what they regard as a winning formula?

Anyway, the Queen has already dictated the script for the festivities in 2008 and nobody – Prince Philip included – would dare change a word.